


A Christmas Coronation

by daughteroflilith



Series: Songs of Innocence and Experience [6]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Banter, Christmas Romantic Commedy, Consummating a Marriage, F/F, Gentle Parody, Holiday Romantic Commedy, Humor, Marriage, Rom Com Logic, Saving the Crown, Wedding Night
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-18 04:48:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21888538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daughteroflilith/pseuds/daughteroflilith
Summary: Intrepid small town report Holly Smith is finally on the upswing after divorcing her childhood sweetheart the year before.  She buys a ticket to the tiny nation of Endovia to get away for the holiday season, only to meet a very charming princess in disguise named Ariane. Can Holly and the princess save the throne for the machinations of Ariane's evil cousin?
Relationships: Intrepid Reporter/ Princess of Endovia, Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Series: Songs of Innocence and Experience [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1390747
Comments: 5
Kudos: 33





	A Christmas Coronation

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve been watching a lot of Hallmark and Netflix original Christmas movies lately. I’ve always absolutely loved just how silly and fun they are. There is something to be said for trying to create high art and then there is also something to said for creating things that are just meant to make people feel warm and fuzzy. I’ve always adored how some of the brighter movies of this genre self consciously lean into every romantic and Christmas trope as hard as they can.
> 
> The films exist in their own world where impulsive decisions always pan out, grand gestures always work, and the ending is guaranteed to be happy. While Christmas romantic comedies are certainly not a reliable source for dating advice they are a nice place to visit every so often. This short story is my own, rather humorous and highly gay take on one of my favorite genres. As with most of my writing, there will, of course, be some sex. Enjoy and please forgive me for the ridiculousness of it.

Two women stood with their hands clasped in the center of the Endovian Parliament Chamber. The first was a tall and striking blond with short golden curls worthy of a fairy tale or at least a shampoo commercial. She wore a dashing, if slightly smudged, white dress uniform of the Endovian military. While Endovia had not had a standing military in some time, their royalty still held honorary positions in it.

The second woman had a somewhat shorter and slighter build. Her dark hair was twisted up with a pencil in a precarious bun. Her elegant red ball gown was torn nearly to her hip and likely well beyond mending. She’d lost her shoes at some point in the evening and so was standing barefoot in the hallowed halls of government. 

A brightly dressed minister stood before both women, hastily finishing a marriage ceremony, her eyes constantly flickering to the enormous and ancient cuckoo clock that dominated most of the northern wall of the wood-paneled room. It was five minutes to midnight. 

“Do you Princess Ariane Isabella Blackwood of Endovia, take Holly Evelyn Smith of Cedar Creek Texas to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

Ariane squeezed Holly’s hand and said with absolute certainty. “I do.”

“And do you Holly Evelyn Smith of Cedar Creek Texas, take Princess Ariane Isabella Blackwood of Endovia to be your lawfully wedded wife.

For once in Holly’s life, she didn’t hesitate. “I do.”

“I now declare you partners for life, you may kiss,” said the minister.

And they did. It was perhaps not the greatest kiss in history, but it was a good, albeit quick one. The kiss and the applause that it had inspired among the members of parliament were both cut short by a pointed cough from the countries prime minister. 

“Your highness, if I may, you must be crowned before midnight or all is lost.”

Ariane nodded and then quick knelt, accepting the ceremonial sword that was handed to her and resting it across her knee.

The prime minister hurried through the ceremony with as much gravitas as she could muster, while speaking at breakneck speed. Ariane swore to uphold the laws of Endovia, care for and defend its people, and a couple of other things. As it was, the prime minister still barely managed to say the last words and thump the crown onto the new queen’s head before the clock struck midnight. The ancient timepiece popped out a little gold-painted bird that trilled out twelve booming cuckoos, to mark the start of Christmas. 

For one perfect moment, all was well. The new queen stood and embraced her wife as the parliament cheered. Her mother, sister, and niece, in a rather uncharacteristic failure of decorum, hurried to hug and congratulate them both. Across the room, her cousin, Ronald, who had conspired to steal her throne, glowered. His wife, Dutchess Sophia, was doing an even better job of it, radiating true wrath. 

Queen Ariane could in truth forgive her cousin. Ronald had never been the brightest soul, and she was very certain the attempted at stealing the throne had been his wife's idea. Dutchess Sophia had surely been the one who'd done the research and found the esoteric line in the nearly forgotten hundred-year-old constitutional amendment to the Endovian constitution that required all monarchs to be married at the time they took the throne.

She had mistakenly assumed that, as Endovia had yet to legalize gay marriage and because Princess Ariane was gay, this would make her ineligible. It would have done the same for her recently widowed younger sister, who was in no state to remarry after losing her husband half a year before in the same small airplane accident that had also killed her and Ariane’s eldest brother Henry.

What Lady Sophia had failed to account for was just how much the normally very conservative Endovian parliament disliked her husband. They had already begun working with Princess Ariane during the months leading up to her coronation and quickly realized how capable, intelligent, and most importantly good at keeping the peace between the warring government factions she was. The last thing they wanted was to crown a former playboy who was primarily known for his short temper and tendency to end up with embarrassing photos in the press. 

Dutchess Sophia had also underestimated just how much times had truly changed regarding the social acceptance of LGBTQ people in Endovia. Ariane had managed to get the speaker of the minority party to take up her cause when she learned that the member of parliament had a gay son who had recently gotten engaged. The MP had very much wanted his son to be able to get married in Endovia and thus used all his political influence to finally pass through a constitutional amendment that legalized gay marriage in Endovia. Of course, Ariane had still needed to find a wife and quickly but that had been a different and much happier story.

The one thing that she still felt uneasy about, even as she stood surrounded by her family and friends was that she didn't know what had spooked the normally stoic carriage horses and caused the runaway sled chase. If she hadn't been able to catch up on her horse and grab the lost reigns to calm the horses, she shuddered to think of what might have happened to Holly. If she ever found out that Lady Sophia had had anything to do with the incident, well she would see her thrown in the palace dungeon, even if that space was primarily being used to store wine and potatoes at the moment. 

Holly squeezed her hand, whispering in her ear. “Everything okay babe?”

“Of course darling,” said Ariane remembering to smile. “And it always will be now that I have you.”

***

Holly was in an exhausted daze by the time they had finally left the parliament, returned to the palace, bid everyone good night and at last reached Ariane's bedroom. She supposed it was their bedrooms now unless Ariane got a bigger one now that she was married and queen. How did that kind of thing work in castles exactly?

She would have simply stepped through the open door without a thought, except she suddenly found herself scooped up. 

She let out an undignified yelp. “Careful.”

Ariane gave her a devilish grin as she stepped across the threshold, “You know I would never drop you.” 

“No, you’ll just pull something in your back,” laughed Holly, who was in truth very impressed.

“O, ye of little faith. I do work out you know.” She set Holly down on the edge of the bed, leaning forward to kiss her deeply. 

This time there was no inpatient prime minister or a clock to think of, only each other. At last, after so many interruptions, they were finally alone. 

The sheer weight of that was exhilarating and just a little bit overwhelming. Holly grabbed at the newly minted queen, pulling her closer, kissing her back hungrily. She couldn’t stop, couldn’t let herself think or she’d remember that she’d just married a woman she’d known for less than two weeks. 

Her attempt to not think of course led her to think. She had just given up her simple life as a reporter for a small-town paper to be consort to the queen of a tiny country. What the hell had she been thinking? She didn’t even know which fork she was supposed to use at the table, much less how to be royalty. 

Had she given up anything though? She knew perfectly well the paper was likely less than a year away from folding and what else was left for her in Cedar Creek? Her ex-wife, who she couldn't seem to avoid? A crummy little house full of painful memories. 

Most of her friends had moved away years ago and even her mom had been thinking of moving to Austin. Her brother and his family already lived there.

Oh god, how was she going to explain this to her mom? She'd flip, There was no way she'd ever understand why Holly got married without telling her, much less to a woman who was practically a stranger. Then again, she'd known her first wife from kindergarten and that had still ended badly. 

The only thing harder than being a lesbian in a small town was being a lesbian who had divorced one of the only other lesbians in said small town. As far as she could tell, her neighbors had managed to be just progressive enough to gossip about her and her ex-wife just as much as they would have a straight couple. 

She felt her body start to tense with worry. She’d barely been able to handle the stares and gossip in her hometown. How on earth would she be able to handle suddenly being in the spotlight of the media? What had she been thinking?

“Holly? You with me beautiful?” asked Ariane, drawing back to look at her wife. 

Holly smiled sheepishly in the flickering lamplight, well electric light, shining out of the fake oil lamps. The castle was a bit too old and flammable to risk too many open flames. “Just letting my worries get the best of me. Everything has been happening so fast.”

Concern drew Ariane’s golden eyebrows together, “We can um, slow down. If you’re tired…”

“On our wedding night?” 

“We did just save my crown, I don’t think anyone would fault us for consummating the marriage in the morning.” even as Ariane said it, Holly could still see the longing in her eyes and the flush on her pale cheeks. Ariane wanted her desperately, she was just being noble. 

Holly reached out to stroke the side of her wife’s face before lightly tracing her lips with a finger, “Best not to risk it, don’t you think, we do have a _duty_ after all.” She was grinning so hard her face hurt.

“Can’t neglect that, now can we?” 

Now she sounded like the playful woman that Holly had run across after getting lost on a tour of the castle. The sly princess who had delighted in not being recognized by an American tourist and pretended to be a castle steward, showing her the entire place while flirting shamelessly. Holly could still remember how hard Ariane had laughed when they came upon a portrait of the royal family in the main hall and Holly had finally realized who she'd spent the last hour with.

"Best we get to it then," said Holly warmly. "Getting me out of this damn dress would be a good start." She sat up enough to turn her back and cast what she really hoped was a winsome look over her shoulder. 

Ariane smiled and ran a warm hand across her bare shoulder, to find the zipper at the back of the dress. She drew it down slowly, taking the time to kiss where Holly’s neck met her shoulder and then down her back along her spine. There was no bra in the way, Holly hadn’t been able to find one that worked with the sheath dress. 

Holly felt her breath quicken as Ariane slipped her warm hands beneath the opened silk to reach around and find her breasts, at first caressing and then deftly finding her nipples and lightly pressing them between her fingers. 

Lost as she was to the intensity of the feeling, Holly found herself fighting a giggle. “Imagine a couple not getting to second base until their wedding night.”

Ariane nipped Holly’s neck very lightly. “How traditional of us. All pure and chaste.”

In spite of herself, Holly felt herself tense again. “Is it… is it going to be an issue when they all realize that I’ve been married before.”

“Hardly, I’m not exactly a virgin myself,” 

"No, but the last English king who married a divorce had to abdicate."

Ariane moved quickly, scrambling to across the bed to move to Holly's other side, catching her face in her hands as Holly had just done. "Darling, it is going to be alright. It is 2019, not 1936 and we are in Endovia and not the United Kingdom. I will not surrender my throne and I sure as hell will never surrender you. I'll fight for both whatever the cost."

“What if you are forced to choose?” Holly hated herself for asking. She blamed the fear and exhaustion of the day for bringing all her fear to the front.

She caught up Holly’s hands in her own. “I love you darling. If it comes to it, they can take the crown but they can’t take you. If it comes to it, I can bear losing the throne, I can’t bear losing you.” 

Such noble words from a woman who had never seen her weep, never seen her sneeze, never heard her snoring. Every part of Holly’s heart ached to believe her. Her wife’s face was so earnest, she thought she could believe her. “How are you even real?”

“How are you?” 

"How am I?" Holly felt laughter bubble up like insanity. "I'm just some American who got cheap off-season tickets to Endovia with airline miles. I am no one. You're a princess, a queen now."

Ariane ran a hand through Holly's hair as if the feel of it calmed her. "Yes, and I am utterly terrified. I am no more than a woman living in a dead brother's shadow, a shadow suddenly thrust into the limelight. No one ever asked me to be anything but the girl standing in the background until my brother died. You though, your fearless, you don't give a damn for the nobles or rules of this place. You even told my damn cousin to go fuck himself."

“Someone needed to.”

“That’s why I married you.”

“If you were willing to marry any woman who told Ronald to go fuck himself, you had options long before you met me.”

Ariane looked down at the covers. “I’m sorry, I’m not much good for words. I’m trying to say you stood up for me, stood up for me in a way even those who love me couldn’t.”

"Ariane, babe, I'll cuss out anyone who threatens you. If there is one thing I'm good at, as an American, it's bucking tradition. You though, you saved me from a goddamn runaway sleigh. That was actual courage"

“That was easy.”

An almost insane sort of laughter bubbled up in Holly’s throat. “So swearing is hard for you but not stopping runaway horses.”

“Pretty much.”

“Then we are going to make a magnificent pair.”

“That is what I keep telling you beautiful.”

Damn if Ariane didn't have the best smile. Her big blue eyes certainly helped, they were so wide and almost guileless and yet somehow beguiling. 

Holly still wasn't entirely certain that if she closed her eyes she wouldn't wake up alone in her bed back in Cedar Creek but she was done worrying about that. 

“I think we are both wearing far too much clothing.”

The next few minutes were an awkward combination of scrambling, wrestling, touching and admittedly tugging at sock and underwear near the end of the process.

When Ariane was naked, Holly couldn’t help but sit back and appreciate the view for a moment. “You weren’t lying about the whole working out thing.”

“I try. Or well my personal trainer does, mostly she just tells me what to do and then tells me how I’m doing it wrong. Maybe she’ll be nicer for a while. Now that the law’s changed, she can marry her girlfriend, or maybe annoyed, she goes through girlfriends pretty fast from what I understand.”

Holly laughed softly. “I’m sure she’ll appreciate having the choice as much as anyone else.” She was still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that an entire country, even a tiny one, had just gotten gay marriage. The day the United States had legalized gay marriage had been huge. It had been the day she made one of the most impulsive decisions of her life and married her first wife. Then again, maybe marrying a woman she’d dated since high school didn’t count as impulsive. 

She pushed the thoughts down, she wasn't going to lose the joy of the moment to the shadow of the past. She nudged Ariane back and began to trace her hands down her leanly muscled body, running her fingers across her collarbones, down lower to cup a breast, then raising her fingers to find a nipple. 

Ariane was a wonderful sound, so Holly dipped her head down and brought her lips to the same nipple. Ariane quickly began louder as she swirled her tongue in a circle and then sucked. 

Feeling confident, Holly kissed lower, taking her time working down the smooth plane of her wife’s stomach and then nudging her legs open. 

“Oh, murmured Ariane. “Wait, let me–,” she gasped as Holly nipped the inner thigh. “Touch you first.”

“You think that is how this is going to go, do you?” murmured Holly as she used her fingers to part her wife’s labia and then ducked down her head. 

Ariane didn’t manage much more than a sort of Ah,” sound. 

Holly began torturously slow, lightly tracing a circle around Ariane's clit without ever really pressing on it. She waited until her wife was bucking her hips to finally bring the tip and then the flat of her tongue against her clit. 

She felt hands tangle in her hair. Although Ariane moaned desperately she had the good manners not to pull. Holly won't have minded if she did but she was a bit too occupied to say anything at the moment. 

When Holly felt Ariane's leg start to tremble, she increased her efforts and then began to directly suck on her clit. 

"Yes, yes, Holly, yes." The rest of what she said as her back arched wasn't words. 

Ariane slumped back onto the bed as her orgasm faded. 

Holly looked up smugly, "Again?" 

“Too sensitive,” mumbled Ariane contently. She reached for her wife and Holly crawled up to lie beside her, curling up at her side. 

Holly kissed her with her essence still on her lips and Ariane returned the kiss lazily. When they pulled apart Ariane said. "You're good at that."

“I have some talents.”

“You’ll have to let you show me mine.”

And just like that, Ariane was over her, kissing and touching every bit of skin she could reach. 

She paused only to say. “Tell me what you want beautiful.”

As a young woman, she’d always been embarrassed to put words to desire but she was old enough to have found her voice. 

“I need your fingers inside of me,” 

Ariane obliged. She found her slick and ready. 

Holly moaned as Ariane pressed one and then two fingers into her. She began slowly, getting a sense for the woman beneath her. 

When Holly began to move her hips, Ariane knew she could speed up her motions. She adjusted the angle of her hand to bring her thumb against Holly's clit every few thrusts. 

“Yes, harder, please,” Holly managed. “More, another finger.”

Ariane did so, curving her fingers inside of her in just the right way. 

It was all Holly could do not to claw at Ariane's back. She had no idea if Ariane would have liked or hated that but the first time they were having sex was no time to find out. Instead, she clutched at the sheets and prayed she didn't tear them. She was close, very close.

She was so lost to the sensation she barely noticed when Ariane captured one of her breasts with her free hand and began to roll a nipple between her fingers. 

“Harder, please harder, pinch,” begged Holly. 

Ariane was hesitant at first but as Holly’s cries grew more desperate she did as she was asked. pressing the delicate pink skin between her nails earning sounds of pure pleasure. 

It was too much for Holly, she tensed and came. Only as the cry left her lips did she realize just how loud she had been. She doubted the room had any soundproofing, so she could only hope that Ariane's room wasn't actually near anyone else's

Ariane echoed her own earlier word back to her, “again?” 

“Yes,” was all Holly could manage. “Harder, yes.”

Her second orgasm crashed over her on the heels of the first and then she truly was spent. She slumped onto the bed and was only vaguely aware of Ariane pulling her into her arms. They lay calm and contented, basking in the moment. 

Although Holly made a good faith effort to stay awake, she was struggling. As the pleasure of the orgasm faded, so did the last of her energy. 

Ariane kissed her forehead, “It’s okay darling, you can sleep.”

“I don’t want this moment to end.” 

“We’ll have more, we’ve got the rest of our lives.”

“That we do.” 

Holly let her eyes close. Whatever lay ahead, she had Ariane and if there was one thing she was certain, it was that they would face the future together. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> As always, come check me out at my website catherineyoungbooks.com


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